


Crisis on Infinite Earths: Red Daughter of Krypton

by Razzy_Loveless



Series: The Multiverse Series (SUPERCORP EDITION) [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), F/F, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2020-12-28 22:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21144245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razzy_Loveless/pseuds/Razzy_Loveless
Summary: All Lena can think about now is simply how selfish Supergirl is being because all the other spandexed, leather-wearing superheroes with their stupid capes are trying to save the world.All of them are trying to save the Multiverse, and Lena just wants Supergirl to do something.Lena wants her to do what she always does.To save the world once more.That desire is what leads Lena to the Star Labs room where a catonic Supergirl remains catanoic and still as ever.So she snaps.ORHow Supergirl becomes a Red Latern during Crisis due to Earth-38 blowing up and the Five Stages of Grief.





	1. Denial

Lifeless and dull.

That is how Supergirl appeared now.

Lena desired just _this_ for a month straight after the reveal.

The reveal from her brother that Supergirl is none other than Kara Danvers.

Then once the anger faded a little, the determination to fix humans and aliens set in. 

Lena wanted to fix them since they could not fix themselves.

With this realization, Lena stopped blaming Kara for choosing to lie.

After all, Kara like everyone else could not help but be controlled by their emotions.

Lena wanted to fix that in time, but the Crisis happened and then, _then _it happened.

The world ended.

Everything ended, and Lena lost everything. They all did. The few who survived, that is, and now they were all on another world.

Earth-1 is what Alex had told her.

Supergirl was, though, not _really_ here in this world.

Her cousin Superman, who barely survived along with his wife and newborn son, could not reach his cousin through the newly-formed catonic shell.

Her adopted mother Eliza could not garner a reaction.

Not even Alex.

Her friends James and Nia were also at a loss.

Even Brainy could not calculate even a one percent chance of breaking through to Supergirl in time for the final battle.

The only words which came from Supergirl were murmured whispers of names lost once more.

A coworker.

A barista.

Cat Grant.

Alura.

Lena doesn't think about the last name Alura. It is too much to think on.

She also doesn't think about her mother Lillian who is now gone without a trace save for some painful memories.

Lena also doesn't think about Lex still being alive due to the so-called Monitor reviving him.

Or about how her brother has since gone rogue in some revenge plot against her and the kryptonoans while _freaking_ existence itself is threatened.

No.

All Lena can think about now is simply how selfish Supergirl is being _because_ all the other spandexed, leather-wearing superheroes with their stupid capes are trying to save the world.

All of them are trying to save the Multiverse, and Lena just wants Supergirl to do something.

Lena wants her to do what she always does.

To save the world once more.

That desire is what leads Lena to the Star Labs room where a catonic Supergirl remains catanoic and still as ever.

So she snaps.

"Supergirl, quit it!" Lena sneers, unable to take it anymore. "Just quit it! Quit it because this isn't just your pain, okay! Our world ended too! My world ended too! So if you want to do something to help us, to defeat the Anti Monitor before he ends everything, then quit being a goddamn coward and fight!"

Luthors are scorpions.

Scorpions sting and elicit a response.

So Lena should have known that her angry words in contrast to everyone else's soothing ones would garner such a reaction.

Such a reaction entails Supergirl slamming her against the wall.

"You don't know anything!" Supergirl seethes, lively as ever. "You don't know, Lena! It was everything I feared could happen, and it happened again! So I am not a coward! I'm not afraid even! What to fear now when all I have left for certain is my rage!"

Red eyes burn and sizzle before Lena.

Either from heat or from tears evaporating, Lena does not know.

Lena only knows she pushed Supergirl too far too fast.

She knows that now but does not manage to apologize for it because a disembodied voice declares "_you have a great rage in you, Kara Zor-El_".

Then a scream of pure rage and maybe even hate escapes from Supergirl.

The Girl of Steel then disappears in a bright flash of red, and Lena is left alone and trembling against the wall.

Lena feels only fear.

For Supergirl and for what comes next in this Crisis.

* * *

"My goodness, Lena." Alex murmurs when they are alone after the meeting over this new development ends. "What happened in there? I mean, I saw the security footage, but my sister was- was pure red."

Lena does not know what happened. She only knows what everyone else knows.

She knows that the Monitor said something about Red Laterns and Intergalactic Guardians and all that.

She also knows how it sounded to listen to Supergirl scream and cry and mourn for another lost planet.

To mourn for the loss of Earth-38.

Earth-38. Lena sickly realizes. Her home is now gone.

The Monitor said that if they succeed then only a few people (the ones in the temporal zone when the outcome happens) will remember the Crisis.

He says only one outcome can save life from ceasing. He does not share the outcome though due to it apparently being a risk to do so.

Lena does know what that all means, but not remembering does sound good.

Not remembering how it felt to feel the world shake underneath her feet and see energy rip it apart, that would be great.

Boxes, Lena tells herself, just keep it all in boxes until she doesn't need them anymore.

The Multiverse is in danger which is all that matters now.

If what Monitor said about Supergirl is true, if she really has given into her rage and become a Red Latern, then the only thing more dangerous than this Crisis is the Last Daughter of Krypton.

Because Supergirl is a beacon of hope.

Lena recognizes that now. Her long-faded desire to hurt that beacon of hope is gone. It has been gone for a long time now.

Lena only wants to stop the desire to hurt now. She wants to eradicate that desire within herself and within others.

So Lena promises herself then.

If they can make it through this Crisis.

If Lena can still remember what happened and what she is working toward with Hope, then she will continue.

Lena will stop all the pain and suffering across the universe, and despite not wanting to admit it, she also wants one other thing.

Lena wants to prevent Supergirl from ever getting hurt again.

She wants to prevent her best friend from losing everything once more, because Lena will always remember how broken Kara looked right before she became a Red Latern.

One battle at a time though.

One battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who follow my stuff, I know that I said that I planned on writing an Injustice style fanfiction. I plan to still do so, but I have not yet due to simply having a writer's block on it. When I do write it, I want it to feel right, because if it doesn't, then I won't be satisfied with it.
> 
> I also have decided that I will write a second and final chapter to my supercorp "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Hands of Time" fanfiction. Update for that should be soon. Check it out if you want.
> 
> Anyway, this one is going to be brief chapters unlike my other fanfics, so it should not take me long at all to finish it.


	2. Anger

Supergirl tries to go after the Anti-Monitor herself.

In the process, Supergirl mucks up the rest of the superheroes, and even some of the newly aligned supervillians, plan to defeat him.

He evades them longer.

Time is running out, but the rage which Supergirl feels has not.

Lena knows this because Supergirl has gone after Lex.

The Green Laterns tell her to stay put as they go to neutralize the kryptonian, and Alex agrees with them.

A man named Hal Jordan leads the other Laterns into battle against Supergirl. Everyone else regroups and plans out the next attack.

Everyone but Lena.

Lena was never one to back down during the good fight.

* * *

It comes to a head when Lena finds her way to the battle against Supergirl.

The Green Laterns are levitating in the air now instead of sending will-powered punches at a rage-filled Supergirl.

The Green Laterns eyes glow green, as does Lena.

Her power extends only to them. Kryptonians are not affected by them, and Lex always came prepared one way or another.

His new lexosuit having a mind-control deflector on it.

Supergirl climbs to her feet out of the rumble created by a will-powered punch from the now mind-controlled Hal Jordan.

Lex stands tall, preparing to move upon the distracted Girl of Steel.

"Enough, Lex!" Lena shouts. "This ends now! The Multiverse is in danger, and all you can think about is yourself!"

Lex smiles, wide and satisfied. Lena glares at her brother.

If only he could have stayed dead.

"Supergirl!" Lex addresses the now standing Girl of Steel. "Am I really the only Luthor here who thinks of themselves?"

Supergirl stares at him as she catches her breath from the Green Laterns attack.

"After all, Lena manipulated you!" Lex taunts. "Could have tarnished your reputation in the process! The superthief isn't as endearing of a name! She wanted to expose you, too! Don't forget that either just because she didn't! So Supergirl, what do you want to do to Lena in return? Don't you want to _hurt_ her?

Lena freezes.

Because why wouldn't the Girl of Steel want to crush her when Lena once wanted the same.

Lena knows Supergirl realizes that she is afraid. 

"No!" Supergirl stares long and hard at Lena. "I don't want to hurt, Lena! I want to stop _you_ Lex from hurting anyone else again!"

In an instance, Lex is slammed against the ground by his neck.

Supergirl holds him down.

Her eyes are heated up.

The rage is purely palatable.

This was clearly not apart of her brother's original plan, but Lex never cracks under pressure.

"You loved her!" Lex practically sneers, desperate to regain control of the situation. "You loved her, and it was all a lie! She played you like a fool as her ends were met, and if it wasn't for this Crisis, you wouldn't be working with her still! You wouldn't let her in again!"

Supergirl tightens her hand around Lex's throat, hard enough to make him gasp but not enough for him to be rendered speechless.

"Or would you?" Lex ponders aloud, gasping a little. "Maybe I'm wrong! Maybe you would have let her in again and again! Maybe that is why you're so mad, because you would let her hurt you again in a heartbeat if it meant keeping her!"

Rageful and red eyes stare down at Lex. He lowers his voice now.

"Maybe that's why you're mad." Lex softly declares as if he truly empathizes with Supergirl. "Because you love her and can't stop. I understand, you know. I love her too."

Lena knows what Lex is doing. He wants to make Supergirl give into her rage even if it means the end of his life. His end goal has always been diluted by his need to win even at the cost of everyone else.

The worst part is Lena knows that what Lex claims is true. She has always known, even before the reveal, that Kara had felt something for her.

Lena felt something for her too.

In some ways, Lena had used that to her advantage. She knew that Supergirl would do certain things for her.

Fight for her. Defend her. Nearly die for her. Steal for her.

Lena quickly learned there indeed were no boundaries for Supergirl.

Not when love and guilt were in the mix.

That was a part of Supergirl's anger, but it was not all of it.

Not by a long shot.

Lena knows Kara Zor-El enough to know that.

"No, Supergirl! You're mad because of everything!" Lena shouts before Supergirl goes too far. "You're mad because you lost your world when you were thirteen! You had to hide who you were and everything that made you _you_ ever since then! You were forced to be a nobody while your cousin got to be out and in the open! You were bullied for being the weird girl at a school where everyone was _aliens_ to you!"

Lena remembers how Kara had once showed her some angry comment on her award winning exposé. It was from a former classmate who was clearly bias and jealous after the Pultizer Award Ceremony.

Kara told her that the girl was a part of some middle school clique. The clique only let Kara sit with them at lunch if she did all their homework. She commented on how her super-intelligence in math made her "friend duties" very easy, but her history skills were lacking and got her kicked to the curb a few times.

Kara noted that she quit sitting with them after she made her first real friend. He was a boy named Kenny who later died during their time at Midvale High.

Lena realized that night that Supergirl, _that Kara_, was just like her in some ways.

Despite all the power at her disposal, Kara just wants to fit in.

Lena does too, even as both the privilege and the stigma of being a Luthor hangs over her.

Lena remembers talking about her own school troubles with Kara during that conversation.

Or rather Supergirl, since it was after a late night patrol.

Said patrol was particularly uneventful, so the kryptonian stopped by.

Lena admitted to some bad memories, some her own doing and some not.

Kara never judged her for the times Lena admitted to giving into her emotions.

So Lena will not judge now as she continues on.

"You lost your adoptive dad because of people who wanted to hurt you! You broke the noses of four guys who you liked because you wanted to kiss them like everyone else! You finally got to help people, and it never seemed to be enough! A new villain showed up! You were not quick enough! The People turned against you at times! I turned against you! So you're mad!"

Supergirl turns toward her. Her eyes are still burning, and Supergirl still holds Lex against the wall.

Lena is not afraid like she was before.

No, there is something in Supergirl's burning expression which still shows that Lena has gotten to her.

Something searching.

So Lena gives her an acknowledgement.

She gives her acceptance.

"All I can say is be mad." Lena finally declares, softer this time. "Be as mad as you want. Embrace it, but this right here? This won't stop the Anti Monitor. My brother is just stalling and engaging with you 'cause he wants you to fail! He wants you to watch your world burn once more! Wants you to hurt me as well, but that failed! Right, Lex?"

Supergirl looks back at Lex. He growls and sneers.

"You think you're so smart!" Lex shouts. "Well, you're-"

Supergirl suddenly pulls him back and slams him into the ground. 

Lex crumples, now unconscious.

Then Supergirl is right in front of Lena. Her eyes no longer burn with anger, even if it is still under the surface.

Lena holds her breath, uncertain of what may happen next.

"I just don't want to hurt anymore." Supergirl softly confesses. "I don't want anyone to hurt anymore."

A sigh of relief.

Lena smiles despite herself.

Because maybe Supergirl has a different idea about how to carry out that desire, but either way, Lena and Supergirl both want the same thing.

"Well." Lena drawls, her eyes still glowing green from the mind control. "Let us both ensure that won't happen again."

It might be too late though.

After all, this world begins to shake underneath their feet much like Earth-38 had.

Where were they exactly, Lena wonders, was it Earth-14. Either way, the Anti-Monitor is here somewhere.

Lena glances at the Green Laterns still under her control. She releases them.

Hal Jordan responds first. His anger nearly rivaling the Girl of Steel.

"You weren't suppose to be here, Miss Luthor!" Hal shouts. "You risked everything for her!"

The ground shakes once more.

A beam of light breaks through the ground, breaking the crust of this world into long creaves.

"We all won't be here for much longer if we don't leave now!" Lena exclaims, turning to Supergirl. "This world is going to be destroyed too!"

Hal Jordan stiffly nods. He presses the watch Cisco made for him. A portal opens to Earth-1.

Hal Jordan and the Green Laterns fly through it.

Lena turns her back on the portal and faces Supergirl.

"I can't let him destroy another world, Lena!" Supergirl tells her. "I won't let it happen again!"

"There's nothing we can do!" Lena shakes her head, just as the ground rumbles once more. "We need to focus on the end goal if we want to win!"

It happens suddenly and in a way Lena always imagined it would happen. 

Kara kisses her.

Everything whooshes around them and there is bright lights.

Maybe the world is ending, and this is how she dies.

Maybe dying won't be so bad then.

Kara pulls away from the kiss, though her hands still press against Lena's cheeks.

Lena then notices. The portal is no longer behind Lena but rather behind Supergirl.

Their surroundings are now that of Star Labs.

They are now safely back on Earth-1, Lena realizes. Supergirl must have used her superspeed on her while they were kissing.

"That's one of the reasons why I always loved you, Lena." Supergirl softly admits. "You always wanted to do good, and I do too. That's why I have to do this."

Before Lena can respond, Supergirl disappears back into the swirling portal and back toward inevitable annihilation.

The portal closes behind Supergirl, and all Lena can do is stare at it.

Willing to trade anything to stop it all from happening.


	3. Bargaining

Within a few moments, the Harbinger flashes before her and in tow is Supergirl.

Notably with Lex as well.

"I was going to finish this!" Supergirl shouts at the Harbinger. "Why did he make you stop me?"

A voice appears behind them. It belongs to the Monitor.

"You cannot die." The Monitor declares. "You are needed in crisis. You, Supergirl, one of our seven Paragons."

"And him?" Supergirl points to Lex. "What is he needed for? Why does he get to live when everyone else is dying?"

"In due time." Monitor cryptically states. "All in due time."

* * *

Lena decides the Monitor is an utter fool.

After all, Lena can see no reason for why Lex is involved in saving the universe.

Not when he seems intent on letting it be collateral damage on his warpath.

The warpath being Lex stealing the Book of Destiny and attempting to kill every Superman in every universe.

Supergirl is rather livid that the Monitor allowed this. Nonetheless, Lex is put in a cell instead of a shallow grave, and Lena visits him only for the glorious sight of it.

It is comical when Lex comments on how strange it is that Clark Kent was Superman in one of the Universes.

Lena barely stifles a laugh because Lex is _smart _but not smart enough, and Lena takes pride in the fact that she was not the only Luthor fooled by a pair of glasses.

Lena leaves Lex behind and refocuses on other matters, like helping Ray Palmer program the Paragon-Finder.

In the end, it works.

All Seven of the Paragons are united at last.

* * *

It feels like the calm before the storm after all Paragons are united.

Despite herself, Lena seeks refuge in the one person who always helped her brace the storms.

Supergirl is off to herself on the Waverider when Lena finds her.

No one besides Alex has spoken with the Girl of Steel since the Red Laterns chose her.

Lena takes in Supergirl and her new appearance. Her suit is tinged with a reddish glow similar to the Anti Matter Wave.

In some ways, Lena imagines that glow is just as destructive.

"The Monitor says I'm the Paragon of Hope," Supergirl states without any prompt, "I see how the rest of them look at me now. They don't believe it. Not anymore."

"They're wrong." Lena declares. "I don't think anyone would make it as far as you without hope."

"They still think it. They don't trust me, and- and Kate had kryptonite." Supergirl confesses. "She got it while visiting another Earth in search of the paragons. She threatened to use it on me."

That causes Lena to loss her composure.

"Why would she-" Lena finds it hard to focus. Kata Kane is so dead. "I swear to God, Kara-"

"But I understand, you know?" Supergirl interupts Lena. "So, I let her keep it."

"What?"

"I'm a danger." Supergirl states. "I realize that now, and you were right. You were right to make kryptonite just in case, and I was wrong to think I could ever be better than this."

Lena blinks. It is a brief moment before she responds. When she does, it is with fury.

"You-" Lena hisses. "You truly are insufferable!"

Supergirl flinches.

"I never made kryptonite to hurt you!" Lena exclaims. "I did it to protect you!"

"Lena-"

"No, no!" Lena seethes. "It was for Reign, but it was also for Supergirl! If Supergirl was compromised, like now, like before with red kryptonite, then I needed to be able to stop her! I needed to stop her before she did something she regretted!"

"I didn't-"

"I couldn't bear the thought of Supergirl being subjected to a loss of public faith, all because of a mistake! I couldn't bear the thought of her losing her way and leading a trail of destruction behind! I just- I just-"

"You-" Supergirl finishes for Lena. "You just wanted to make sure that I would always stay the hero, even if it meant you had to be the villian?"

It comes off as a question, but Supergirl already knows the answer, and Lena refuses to cry.

Not now.

Because when Lena made the kryptonite and other weapons, it was to stop any alien threats. When she thought of potentially using it on Supergirl though, Lena only saw it as a way to protect Supergirl.

"Yes," Lena admits, "because love is stopping the person you care for from destroying themselves."

Lena does not say that she tried the same with Lex. She imagines Supergirl already realizes that.

"But," Supergirl murmurs, "you never loved Supergirl. Only Kara."

"Yes, well." Lena hums. "Denial is a powerful thing."

Because Lena always knew, deep down, that Kara Danvers could never be of this world. She was too good to be, and after that realization, the glasses stopped fooling her.

But denial is a powerful thing in the end.

And Lena would have denied it to the end of her days had Lex not taunted her with the truth.

_Had Kara_, Lena softly thinks, _not chose to tell even if it was too late._

"I loved you too." Supergirl states. "Still do."

Lena knows this all too well.

"Yeah, you kissed me." Lena notes. "You tried to go half-cocked into battle against an unstoppable foe, and you kissed me before you did."

"I did." Supergirl agrees, verging on something akin to hope. "You kissed me back."

"I did, but Kara," It is the first time that Lena has said Supergirl's real name. It feels foreign, "I feel numb when I think of you, and I know you think you did it all out of love, but that's why I can't forgive you."

"I don't understand." Supergirl replies, quietly. "What are you saying?"

"Love shouldn't be like this." Lena declares. "It shouldn't be this messy and complicated and hurtful. It should be different. It should feel good, but I don't feel good with you anymore."

Supergirl closes her eyes. Lena swears that a tinge of red glows from underneath them, but Supergirl reopens them once more, and Lena finds only blue.

"Life is a series of risks." Supergirl declares. "You love in spite of the risk, and you're worth it. That's why I told you, even if I didn't know it was too late."

_You're not. _Lena wants to say. _You're not worth the risk._

She does not want to add one more reason for Supergirl to be filled with rage, so Lena says something else.

For her sake at least.

"I won't be with you," Lena states, having to at least say that, "maybe I would have then, but not now or ever."

Lena feels the urge to look away from Supergirl. She cannot bear to see how the Girl of Steel will respond to that.

"No." Supergirl finally murmurs. "I still have hope for us. I will always have hope for us."

Maybe, Lena realizes, this is what makes Kara Zor-El the Paragon of Hope. She still hopes against all odds for the impossible.

Lena gazes at Supergirl just as a wave of bright light engulfs her, similar to Harbinger's one from before.

Kara Zor-El is gone, and something is terribly wrong. Lena realizes it. She realizes it as she runs in search of someone, anyone, to explain what is happening. The ship is shaking, just as Earth-36 had before it vanished.

Lena stops at the corridor in front of the lab where Lex is contained. She leans against the entrance to the lab and sees Lex calmly in his cell.

The Anti-Matter Wave is devouring everything in sight.

"Don't worry, Sister." Lex tells her. "I already saved you."

Lex then glows a bright gold and vanishes into thin air. The Anti-Matter Wave closes in on her.

_I'm going to die alone._ Lena thinks. _I don't want to be alone._

Lena presses the Super emblem on her watch. She hopes against all odds that Supergirl will come.

Supergirl never does.

* * *

Kara Zor-El remains as always one of the last survivors of damned worlds.

Seven Paragons. No. Six and Lex Luthor.

Lex laughs when the Girl of Steel slams him into a wall. Her eyes glow a furious red, and Kara ignores the shouts and demands from the other Paragons.

"If you kill me now," Lex declares, "you'll never see your loved ones again. You'll never see Lena."

So Kara Zor-El lets him go and prays to God that might not exist anymore.

Kara Zor-El prays that hope still remains.

Even now in the Vanishing Point.


End file.
